Hi, nice to meet you
by FlyingKiki
Summary: Raven was sure that their first meeting wasn't the most pleasant one.


This was the last time the Titans trusted Beast Boy (Changeling?) with the responsibility of coordination a mission, Raven thought darkly.

_He had one fucking job. _She frowned and her glowing hand twitched as she healed Red Robin's shoulder which she moments ago nearly accidentally blew off – it was one mangled hot masked man groaned, head in her lap, and his hand twitched as the muscle slowly restored in his shoulder.

Purple eyes cast a worried glance at the barely awake hero while keeping high alert as the noise of distant gunfire ripped through the air. She cast a warry glance at the bolted laboratory doors, reinforced by a couple of tables, chairs, and her magic. Hopefully Dr. Light would not decide to blast his way through the doors just yet. If he did, she might just blow his fucking head off.

Nightwing had sent her to Gotham City to follow Dr. Light's and his recent crime spree in the city. He somehow had gotten hold of kryptonium and supercharged his powers. Dick had placed Gar in charge of coordination and logistics, ensuring that local law enforcement (primarily Batman) were informed of their mission.

Placing Beast Boy in charge of mission coordination was probably their first mistake. Raven was going to kill Dick, and Gar, once she got back to Jump for all the trouble.

But, Dick might just kill her if his brother dies because of blood loss. If that happened, Raven was sure she'd haunt Gar forever and possess him to turn into a fucking cat and jump off Titan Tower nine times.

Their second mistake was probably Raven not checking in with Batman once she arrived. But she assumed the coordination work was done – on certain degree, she trusted Beast Boy's work. Which, was also her third mistake.

Though, there was little she could have done anyway. Considering the moment she arrived in Gotham shit hit the fan and Dr. Light decided to infiltrate Star Labs and terrorize staff, and steal kryptonite and whatever supercharged chemicals that there we stored in the West Gotham facility.

Just as she released a ball of black energy at Dr. Light as he tried to send a charged strike of lighting into the laboratory that could have killed all personnel in the room, a black and red mass appeared out of nowhere vaulting into her line of fire.

From there everything just went downhill.

Everything was a blur from there. Red Robin got hit squarely in the shoulder, her strike ripping through flesh. She acted quickly and used her soul self to grab is injured body towards her and used her other hand to send a blast towards Dr. Light. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, she was able to save all 10 personnel in the laboratory and phase Dr. Light a couple of floors up the building. She deserved a promotion, really.

She and Red Robin had huddled behind an upturned lab desk and she had quickly set to work. She did not want Dick up her ass for accidentally killing his brother.

Raven watched as Red Robin regained movement in his left shoulder as his hand twitched. She mentally sighed in relief and poured a last ounce of energy in restoring all the nerves in his shoulder. She felt lightheaded already from all the exertion.

"Ugh,"

She watched as Red Robin blinked and groaned. His black cowl painfully dug into her thighs which were covered in his blood. She could feel his discomfort and pain push into her. As the last bits of his shoulder were restored, she felt the pain lift and she dropped her hand.

"You pack a punch," she heard him mumble in amusement into her thigh.

"I can destroy a dimension easily."

Raven blinked through the sweat that had accumulated on her face and she was surprised at how lightly Red Robin had taken the whole situation. She sighed loudly and watched as he pulled himself out of her lap and they both collapsed against the upturned tables around them. Raven shakily ran a hand through her hair, and grimaced as Red Robin's blood smeared her hair in the process. _Fuck her life._

"Sorry about that," Raven whispered, taking deep breathes and watching Red Robin carefully. She could feel that he was no longer in pain but rather on high alert, his alarmed emotions pressing against her own forcefully.

"Warn me next time," Red Robin grumbled, a small frown and amused smile playing on his lips. He tested his shoulder and found nothing wrong with him. "Well, at least you healed some of the other issues I've been having with this shoulder. Good as new,"

Raven grimaced and felt faint. "I'm going to fucking kill Beast Boy,"

Red Robin grinned. He stuck out his hand. "Red Robin."

Raven raised an eyebrow. She took his hand and shook it. "Raven."

"Nice to meet you." The corner of his lips quirked. "I wish circumstances would have been different."

Raven dropped her hand into her bloody lap. "Beast Boy was in charge of coordinating the mission. He should have coordinated with you and Batman." She grimaced. "Dick made the call."

Low rumbling ripped through the building. They both looked up and frowned. Looking at each other, they slowly moved to stand. Raven stumbled as a dizzy spell hit her after using so much energy to health Red Robin. His hand reached out and steadied her.

"You okay?"

"You just take the lead. It took too much energy to heal your shoulder."

Red Robin nodded. He cast a quick glance at the sealed laboratory door before sending her a wry smile. "Really nice to meet you though. Dick talks a lot about you and the team. Not really the best circumstance for our first meeting, though, honestly."

Raven let out a little huff of air. "The feeling is mutual."

Red Robin and Raven eventually caught Dr. Light had him locked up in Arkham. Once Raven got back home to the Tower, suffice to say Beast Boy was never placed to handle mission coordination work again.

The second time Raven bumped into Red Robin was, again, purely by accident. Thankfully, no limbs were blown off this time.

"I didn't take you for a children's literature kind of girl, Rachel"

Raven looked up from her crouched position by the bookshelf and stared up at the longhaired man leaning against a brightly colored bookshelf filled with nursery rhymes books. She raised an eyebrow, trying to remember who the man was and read his aura quickly. He looked amused and annoyingly handsome in a black business suit. _Did all the Wayne children have to look this good?_

"Tim," Raven held a copy of Green Eggs and Ham in her hand. Of course Tim Drake knew who she was – knowing him, he had probably read and memorized all their files.

Tim smiled as she recognized him and gave a little wave with his hand in acknowledgement. While she knew who he was, it was a bit strange to Raven to see Red Robin out of his, well, Red Robin costume. She rarely saw superheroes, outside of the Titans and Batman, in their real identities. Seeing Red Robin, Tim Drake, in a business suit in front of her was a bit odd.

"Just picking up a book for Teether," she said, pushing herself up into a standing position. Melvin, Timmy, and Teether were in town. She eyed him expectantly. "What brings you to Jump?"

Tim shrugged and smoothly stuffed his hands into his black pants. "Bruce had me check on one of our offices here in the city."

"Explains the suit," Raven sent him a blank side glance and began walking out of the Children's Section. "But doesn't explain why you're in this bookstore?"

Tim followed her to the cash register. "I saw you walk into the store just as I stepped out of the office. Jump's Wayne Enterprises office is just across the street," he said, pointing at the huge building they could see through the small window by the cash register.

"Oh," Raven blinked, feeling just a little ashamed at her lack of situational awareness. Ignoring Tim momentarily, she turned to the store owner and payed for the little book. She silently wondered why he had followed her into the store. Didn't he have better things to do than hover next to her? Like, maybe bother his brother or something?

Raven tucked her new purchase under her arm and watched Tim fiddle with a few Titans pencils that were on display by the counter. Catching his attention, he grinned and showed her a badly drawn Raven replica printed on the small pencil. She frowned and shook her head. "No."

Tim chuckled and dropped the pencil back into the display case. He followed Raven out of the store. "Where is a good place to grab coffee here?"

Raven was just about to walk home and she eyed Tim curiously. "Aren't you rich enough to own a phone and Google "Best coffee in Jump City?" She noted a few people had stopped across the street of them and where openly gawking at Tim – _where all the Wayne kids this popular?_

Tim snorted. "True," he fished out his phone from his pocket. After a few quick taps and briefly glancing at a mildly amused Raven, a couple of cafés came up from his search. "Tightrope?"

Raven titled her head a just a little bit. "It's a good place, they source really good beans." She paused and looked at her phone to check the time. "It gets a bit crowded at this hour though."

She adjusted the book under her arm and pointed in the opposite direction of the Titan's Tower. "There's a small café just down the road. The wife of the owner of this bookstore runs it. They make pretty good coffee and have a good tea selection. They're cheesecakes are great too."

Tim smiled and stuffed his phone into his pocket. "See? Way better info than a Google search."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Well," she began. "It was nice seeing you but I need to go home and make sure that Garfield has not burned down the tower,"

Tim looked strangely confused. "You don't want to join me for coffee?"

She sent him a surprised look. "Coffee?"

Tim scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry, I thought that was clear."

"You asked for directions." She deadpanned. She stared at the amused Tim, momentarily studying his aura and taking in the gentle friendly push of emotions from him. Well, she figured it would be okay to spend some time with Red Robin – at least he wasn't covered in blood this time. And she'd be away from Garfield for just a few more hours.

"Fine."

Tim smiled. "Great, let's go."

"How's the shoulder?" Raven asked while they were walking down the street.

"It's the best. Thanks again, really." Tim demonstrated by rotating his shoulder. Raven briefly noticed his bicep contract from the movement. She blinked. _Oh._

"I blew off your shoulder," Raven said, sending him a wry look. "Let's not do that again."

They stopped by the entrance of the small café. From the shop's window, it was pretty empty just as Raven predicted. Tim opened the door for them. "Well, at least I know you're around to fix my shoulder in case that happens again."

Raven was working in the briefing room that evening. She had to re-sort most of the files Gar had sorted a week ago. He did a shit job at sorting old case files. It was impossible for them to find anything in this mess. She faintly wondered why they even considered giving Gar the job. _Had they not learned at all?_

"You're not Dick."

Raven looked up from her laptop and stared at the large screen in front of her. "For a great detective, you're not really doing a good job right now. I'm sorely disappointed."

Red Robin laughed. "Sorry, I thought Dick was already here."

Raven looked at the unmasked man. "I'll go get him."

Red Robin shook his head. "Don't bother. I don't mind waiting a bit."

She paused at closing her laptop and stared at the unmasked Red Robin. While it was strange to see Tim Drake outside of his Red Robin uniform a few weeks ago, it was just as stranger to see Red Robin, unmasked, with Tim Drake looking back at her. But she had to admit – _he looked good unmasked_.

"Err, okay." She reopened her laptop and hit a few keys. "How is your shoulder?"

"Never been better." Tim shrugged the shoulder in question with an amused smile. "What are you working on?"

Raven paused. "Sorting through some old case files Garfield messed up sorting."

"Sounds exciting."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Very."

Tim chuckled. "That bad?"

"I wish I had the authority to fire Garfield." Raven deadpanned.

Tim winced. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Can you replace Garfield?"

"Not sure if Batman would like a shapeshifting sidekick."

Raven shrugged. "I'm not sure I'd want one either."

Tim chuckled. A momentary silence filled the briefing room as Raven typed a few commands into her laptop. Raven looked up from the shitty report Garfield filed and stared at Tim, watching him fiddle with his phone. "I'll just send Dick a message. He normally isn't late – unless Melvin and the siblings are holding him up."

Tim blinked and stopped looking down at his phone. "Right. Yeah, sorry. Thanks, Raven."

Raven hummed and pressed a few keys on her laptop. "He'll be here shortly."

"Thanks, Raven."

Raven sent him a brief look before tapping a few more keys and closing her laptop. She stood up just as she felt the familiar push of Dick's emotions down the hallway. Gathering her laptop in her arms, she sent Tim an amused look. "You could have just sent Dick a message yourself, you know."

Tim laughed, sheepish. "Ah."

Raven snorted at Tim just as an unmasked Nightwing stepped into the room with a plush bunny in his hand. "Bye, Tim," she said, not sparing the other Robin a glance and left the two Robins alone.

Dick unceremoniously plopped down in front of the computer, deposited the worn bunny into his lap, and stared up at his younger brother. He grinned as he watched Tim watch Raven leave the room.

"Eyes here, Tim."

Contrary to popular belief, Raven did enjoy exercise. While she may not look like it, she did enjoy her time working out in the gym and going through Dick's deadly training regime – she just liked to complain to annoy Dick most of the time.

Over the past few years, she discovered that running was an excellent way of clearing her mind. She had taken up joining a few marathons for the heck of it and clearly enjoyed completing the runs.

Adjusting her black sports bra, Raven felt the cold Boston wind nip at her exposed legs and stomach. She should have considered wearing a runner's jacket. The Boston wind was not very forgiving. Standing somewhere in the middle of the crowd of thousands at the Boston Marathon, Raven silently surveyed the crowd and wondered how fast she could go this time around.

"I think you're going to have a very unfair advantage at this."

Her ponytail swished as she sharply turned around and look at the very amused expression of Tim Drake. She raised a delicate eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

Tim shrugged. "We're one of the sponsors." He pointed at the WE logo printed on the banner behind her. "Also, publicity."

Raven crossed her arms and gave Tim a challenging look. Taking in his running attire of black running shorts and the WE corporate logo on his running top, she raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think you're going to have an unfair advantage here?"

Tim looked around before leaning and whispering conspiringly. "I'm not the one with superpowers."

"I do not use them!"

Tim laughed at her indignant look and waved both of his hands in peace. There was a distinct shutter noise and they caught someone taking their photo. Tying his long hair into a low ponytail, Tim waved at her. "I got to go. I'll see you at the finish line."

At somewhere along the 20+ kilometer stretch, Raven caught up with sight of Tim keeping a steady running pace. Normally she'd keep to herself while running, but she guessed it wouldn't hurt to run at Tim's pace for a bit and then beat his sorry ass. _See you at the finish line my ass. _Her gaze dropped to his ass for one second.

Running up to him, Raven steadily kept her running pace. She sent him a smirk when she kept running at his pace. "Hey," she breathed.

Tim laughed. "Hey."

Catching his eye, Raven's lips twitched. "See you at the finish line,"

Tim lost his running pace for just a second as he chuckled and watched Raven run past him. As he watched Raven's small form disappear into the crowd of marathoners, his lack of focus was something Batman would be grossly disappointed at.

It wasn't an hour later until Raven saw Tim again. She had crossed the finished line a few minutes ago and was sitting on the ground catching her breath and trying to rest her sore legs. Buzzing with a huge sense of accomplishment of finishing the race under 3 hours, Raven faintly wondered how a race could feel both so painful and gratifying at the same time.

"You run fast."

Tim unceremoniously dropped down in the spot next to her, catching his breath and stretching out his legs. He took a swig from his water bottle and sighed in relief.

Raven turned to stare at Tim as he tried to level his breathing. It should be a criminal offense to still look this good all sweaty and disheveled after running a full marathon. She was sure she looked like shit. She absently patted her disheveled hair.

"I've been joining marathons for a couple of years now." Raven replied. "I like running just as much as I like flying."

Tim made an acknowledging sound at the back of his throat while still trying to catch his breath.

"How come I've never seen you here before?" Raven asked, while pressing a cold water bottle to her neck. She moved a legs a little to get some feeling back into them.

"Probably because there are 30,000 other runners here?" Tim shrugged and grinned at her.

Raven hummed. "Probably." She fiddled with the cap of her water bottle and took a swig of her water. Or probably she blew off his shoulder a few months ago and had just become more attuned with his aura, she thought.

"I never took you as a running kind of girl."

Raven blinked and turned to Tim, eyebrows creased as she watched him curiously. "What kind of girl do you think I am?"

Tim made a face. "The non-running kind?"

She rolled her eyes. "I like running. It's kind of like meditating. And it gives me an excuse to go for runs away from the tower and Garfield."

Tim chuckled. "Makes sense."

"How's your shoulder?" Raven eyed him curiously.

Tim titled his head a little, watching her in mild amusement. "You have to stop asking me that. It's great."

Her lips quirked a little bit. "Tell that to my conscience."

Tim smiled and waved her off. "Occupational hazard. It's alright." He grinned when she looked unconvinced and nudged her shoulder slightly with his own sweaty shoulder, much to her annoyance. "Stop worrying about it."

Raven hummed unconvinced. "We'll see." She briefly surveyed the crowd around them as more runners made their way across the finish line. Deciding that it was time for her to go, she stood up and left Tim on the ground. Dick, like the grandmother that he was, would start wondering where she was if she didn't check-in soon.

"Leaving?"

"Yeah. Your brother will have a heart attack soon if I don't check in with him."

"I'm pretty sure he can wait for a few more minutes," he said while standing up next to her.

Raven made a face. "He likes to crawl up your ass when you're late for check-ins."

Tim chuckled and shook his head. Uncapping his water bottle, he dumped the rest of his cold water over his head in an effort to cool his body down. Raven watched as water dribbled down his face and sweaty chest. She blinked, emotions unknowingly flaring. _Why does that have to look like a GQ commercial shoot?_

"We should go running one of these days."

Raven absently watched as water droplets slid down Tim's chin. "I normally run alone." She said. "But yeah, sure, if you're in Jump, why not."

"Great." Tim smiled. He was about to say something when Raven's watch furiously beeped loudly. Wiping some water off his neck, he sent her an amused look. "Dick?"

Raven rolled her eyes, tapping her discreet state-of-the-art Titan's sport watch. She eyed it in slight annoyance. "Yeah." Looking up and sending Tim an amused smile, she took a step back. She tried to ignore the curious push of emotions from Tim and clutched her water bottle tightly. "I better take this. It was nice, but strange, to bump into you, again. I'll see you around."

Tim nodded and offered her a small wave. "See you."

At this point, Raven knew who he was even before she could see him. Looking up from her book, she gave him a blank stare.

"I feel like you're following me."

Tim laughed sheepishly and dropped into the seat next to her. He surveyed the Jump City park that was bursting from springtime colors. Draping his left arm behind the park bench, he gave Raven a crooked smile. "Maybe I am?"

There was that curious push of emotions again and Raven closed her book. There was no point really of reading anymore anyway. Something flipped inside of her. She'd be a complete idiot if she didn't see, or feel, the interest he had shown in her over the past months. And she'd be a moron to ignore how absurdly attractive Tim Drake was and how he cast long sideway glances at her. She knew there was something brewing – but admitting that she liked that, was something completely different to her. What was she supposed to tell him anyway?

"You're not very good at stalking."

Well, that would work, too.

Tim made a face. "Who said I was stalking?"

"Strange for you to always find me at the right places. Sounds like a stalker to me." She teased, picking up on his teasing aura.

Running a hand through his hair, Tim chuckled lowly. Breaking eye contact to shake away some nerves, he surveyed the park once more, before turning back to Raven. "Okay. You caught me. What if I am?"

What if he was?

Strange how after so many encounters of him oddly tip-toeing around her, and after her nearly killing him at their very first meeting (honestly that sounded like such a deal breaker), he said everything so simply. This was such an honest and simple offer that meant so many things.

Raven's lips quirked as she searched Tim's blue eyes. At the sight of her small smile, he responded with a wider smile. Her fingers tightened around her book. "As long as you don't jump into my line of fire again, I guess I'd be okay with this."

There was a warm buzz of emotions and Tim straightened next to her. She felt his arm that was draped over their bench twitch next to her shoulder. "Really? Okay."' He laughed. "Great."

His blue eyes were so different from Dick's, Raven noted. They were slightly brighter. They shone now with excitement. Raven decided she liked them.

"Go out with me." He breathed softly. Wow, wasn't he forward all of the sudden. "Do you want to grab dinner?"

Raven blinked and she gave him an amused look. "Now? It's just 3 in the afternoon."

"Oh."

Raven laughed softly, a rare sight for Tim which made him grin, and she instead settled herself just a little bit closer to him. She felt his left hand twitch behind her shoulder and she allowed herself to nestle under the crook of his arm. It was the same limb that she blasted off just a few months ago. It was a welcoming warmth – maybe she could do this.

"Maybe we can just sit here and wait a bit. And then have dinner later."

His arm draped behind the bench had made its way to her side, softy draping his arm across her shoulders. "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

Raven smiled, acknowledging the curious warmth that has been bubbling inside of her for months. Sharing a smile with Tim, she agreed its sounded like this sounded like a good plan.


End file.
